Winter, the season with cold, snow, short days and long nights, can be a challenging season to explore the National Park System. Yet it also holds surprises that reveal themselves in shimmering lights darting across the night sky, in tracks of what passed the night before across the snowscape, and in congregations of wildlife.

With reduced travel along the Blue Ridge Parkway during the winter months, park staff are using those months to tackle seasonal road maintenance. And that means you could run into delays if you drive the 469-mile-long scenic road that runs from Virginia to North Carolina in the coming months.

As nice as it might be, the federal government does not fully fund all the needs and challenges the National Park Service faces. And that's where friends groups, cooperating associations, and even for-profit businesses come into play. Some of those organizations even help National Parks Traveler bring news and features about the park system to these pages every day of the year.